Is Jessica Jones a hero? Is she a freak who lost her parents? Or is she just a part time heroine who uses liquor to cover up the pain in her life? Its a bit of both, and if you are ready for another great Marvel Show, then look out DareDevil here comes Jessica Jones!
The past three years of storytelling for Marvel have led to complaints of formulaic storytelling, and growing issues with a lack of a strong female superhero. With the launch of Agents of Shield we were introduced to the continuing stories of John Coulson, and his work to fight the evils of Hydra. With Dare Devil we watched as a villain tried to rebuild a massive section of Hell’s Kitchen only to be undone by a “man in a mask”. In both cases, Jessica Jones is not about saving everyone, its about saving the broken people.
Jessica Jones is a survivor, someone who is trying to fight away the evils of the man known as Killgrave. The mystery of who she is, and why she works the way she did is all revealed in the build up to the series end. Without revealing too much, I can say that this series slings a outright humanized, yet outright disturbing villain, and then watches the Hero trying to clean up the mess. Spiderman was notorious for creating his own villains, but Jessica Jones reacts and does her best to recover from being the victim of a villain.
“Your a piece of shit,” everyone at some point in some manner calls Jessica. She’s an established incredibly rounded woman who is just trying to forget her horrible experiences at the hands of Killgrave. That all goes to hell when her dirty but paying job taking sex-pics of cheating spouses sees her pulled into the mystery of a missing girl. Once tracking down the clues she’ll find herself in a growing conspiracy with a man she thought who was dead. To avoid spoilers we won’t go too much into what occurs next, but I can say its a nice series of twists and turns. Much like Dare Devil this is not a show about the large scale heroes, but the “gifted” individuals who maybe just want to live. This is a show about serious consequences and about how power can seriously corrupt those who wield. However, unlike our more formulaic movie villains, Killgrave is far more
Killgrave comes genuinely feels like a sociopath with too much power. Even when he speaks the man has an articulated edge to him that only exasperates the troubles that he causes. His fixation on Jessica and the desire to possess brings about the primary theme of the show, control. AKA Jessica Jones is a show that tackles the feelings of PTSD, being a survivor, and fighting against victimization. The stage is also set for a very strong future introduction of future super heroes and much more. Here’s to the rise of the Defenders!